On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:54:37 -0800, silentpilot wrote:

So what exactly is the problem with owners of 13 meter ships wanting to
hold contests?

There is a new generation of short wing gliders that are totally
different:
with modern materials is now possible to built light weight sailplanes,
shorter wing span and good L/D ratio that can climb better then the
others,
but at high speed they have no polar, they sink like stones.

How does the speed for best L/D compare with std class gliders?

I think this is a meaningless comparison without knowing that,
particularly as I'd expect a modern section to have a better high speed
polar. I have only an anecdotal data point to add: one of the
Aerovironment guys, who I met briefly at a FF model contest, has a
Sparrowhawk, which is a glider I've yet to see but am very curious about.
During a chat he said he'd flown with a Standard Libelle, which I fly,
and thought their performance was very similar.

Of course they do not go very far because of the very light weight.

An obvious similarity is that both gliders have wing areas that are
smaller than the norm: the Std Libelle is 9.8 m^2 vs around 10.5 m^2 for
most std class gliders. Presumably in both cases this was done to get an
acceptable cruising speed from a light airframe. Libelles go cross
country pretty well, so why are you implying that the new generation of
light 13m gliders won't?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |